Dozens Dead In Beijing's Worst Flood In 60 Years

Officially the flooding is being blamed on the worst rains to hit Beijing in 50 years (another amazing, yet perhaps suspect figure says that the rain was the worst to hit the Fangshan district of Beijing in 500 years).

Bill Bishop of the Sinoism blog suspects that the official number of 37 may be low, given the destruction seen in Fangshan district the video below from CCTV:

"Fangshan is a stark reminder of the close proximity of the first and third worlds in China, and given the topology, the deforestation and the poor infrastructure in parts of Fangshan things could really be quite bad there."

The footage also shows a 1 km long flooded stretch of the Jinggang highway completely submerged, with some reports that up to 100 cars may be in the water.